The invention disclosed herein relates to a teaching apparatus and, in particular, to an apparatus for teaching geography which uses visual associations to help students remember geography.
Studies show that many Americans have a woefully inadequate knowledge of geography. Recent advances in computers and telecommunications have made it even more imperative for Americans to learn about their world and be familiar with the names and locations of countries and cities as well as various other information about the nations of the world and their lifestyles.
In this computerized age, students are increasingly becoming accustomed to learning through a highly visual and interactive environment. In fact, the use of visual images associated with textual information in an interactive environment, such as can be provided by a computer, is an effective method of helping students learn and remember facts. In addition, students tend to learn even more effectively when they are taught through games or other testing devices which challenge them and gauge their performance.
However, many schools are on tight budgets and can not afford to provide every student access to a computer. Also, it has been shown that writing words down allow for longer memory retention than simply clicking on a mouse to select an answer choice. Furthermore, computer programs, books, or atlases which are used to teach geography quickly become outdated in this fast-changing global environment. Therefore, a relatively inexpensive and easily replaceable mechanism is needed for teaching students geography. To the best of the inventor's knowledge, no such mechanism is currently commercially available. The present invention provides the heretofore missing geography teaching apparatus which provides students a fun, visually associative, interactive way of learning and memorizing geography, and which is relatively inexpensive and easily replaceable.